#ukvia

[kakaphoe]

I don’t think Teresa May’s ever had a thought of her own, she just tries to copy paste other fascists’ policies and wishes she was Thatcher.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Is it just me or has there been an unusually high spate of unexploded WW2 bombs turning up recently?

[masterpiecevape]

MOKI was Invited to Attend the UKVIA 2024 Annual Conference Forum - MOKI

On November 15th local time, the 2024 annual conference forum of the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) was grandly held at the London R

[amgbiz]

UKVIA: TRPR review acknowledges crucial role vaping plays in smoking harm reduction

In response to the Department for Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) review into the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations (TRPR) laws, the

[amgbiz]

UKVIA urges Scottish government to rethink plans to ban promotion of vape products

The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has urged the Scottish Government to rethink plans to ban the promotion of vaping products, warni

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Long story time. When I was in college 20 years ago now (omg I'm old), I studied in London for a semester. But this wasn't a normal study abroad. We had professors from the 3 colleges come with us, and we took classes from them. Our American bubble in the middle of London.

But we were all required to take one class called "British Life and Culture" and the subject I remember most vividly was the idea of who holds onto the term British. Basically they argued it was Protestants from NI because they didn't want to be Irish as that meant Catholic, and non-White Brits because they weren't truly accepted as "English" or "Welsh" etc no matter how many generations they'd been there. (This wasn't being taught as justified, but a horrible reality we should understand to truly understand the culture. Same as the lesson on how class based British society is complete with a broke dude with a BBC accent, and a rich woman from the East End).

I'm curious what your take is on that. How much you think that's changed in the last 20 years, and how accurate it was/is in general. I feel like with my younger British friends it's def not true, but boy is it if you talk to their parents. O.o

That's an interesting one, and one I'm probably not qualified to answer in its entirety. Although I can certainly give the Welsh perspective.

English people will not fucking stop referring to Britain as England. To them, those are synonyms. And Britain already suffers from a breathtaking amount of Anglocentrism. Like, I remember watching the news a few years back - the national news, before it flipped to the local news of the day. There were two major stories they were covering.

The first was about England's upcoming plastic bag charge, and what difference it would make, and how it would affect real people, and how we just didn't know the full impacts.

Wales had already been doing it for a year at that point.

The second story was about sport - I forget what football competition it was because I don't care, but let's say the Euros. England had just crashed out. Is there any point then, the newscaster asked, on national news, in still watching it now, if there's no England to cheer on?

Wales were still in it.

And that wasn't intentional on the part of those journalists, but like... you can see exactly what has happened there. England counts, Wales does not.

So 'British' is very important to Celtic nations, because otherwise, we don't get included (and even then...) Like, I will not be called English. I will not. I have literally in my life been spat at by English people and told that I should be used to it because that's what my language sounds like. My parents were denied housing in Birmingham for three months because of my dad's Welsh name. That's the tip of the iceberg. That's not my country, that's not my identity.

English people, on the other hand, rarely use the term. And certainly, that includes the English POC I know. They say English instead of British. HOWEVER, it's a big place and I only know a handful of people, and they are not a monolith of course. Plus, almost all the people I know are Londoners, which makes a big difference again.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

This is a minor and banal observation that no one asked for, but I never more keenly see the cultural differences between the UK and the US than when you watch a reality TV talent show and a contestant walks out and declares “I’m a star in the making and I’m going to be huge” and the entirety of the UK watching goes “Big yikes, lads” and the American judges go “Wow, I love your confidence” and mean it.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

weird one but um would you say england has a west ? we got The North and The South. and southeast as code for greater greater london. and cornwall. but theres not really a west ?? it came up in a conversation with an american friend and i want other british folks' thoughts

I mean, I'm not English so you'll have to ask a one of them for the precise borders of these things (are you a one of them? I can't tell from your phrasing), but yes it absolutely does - the West Country. It's an irritating name if you come from the actual country to the west to be sure, but that's like... Cornwall, Devon, Somerset... uh, Bristol? Okay my English geography is spectacularly bad so I can't tell you where else (does Hereford count? Or am I just naming Bits of England Near the Border That Have Welsh Names As Well As English Ones? Who knows). But yeah, that's the west bit I think.